Background. Bone healing is a complex and dynamic process that represents a well-orchestrated series of biological events of cellular recruitment, proliferation, and differentiation. The use of medicinal plants in bone healing has attracted increasing interest because of their lower side effects. Punica granatum seed oil (PSO) contains high levels of phenolic compounds, promotes osteoblast function, and plays an important role in bone remodeling. A gelatin sponge (Spongostan) is a hemostatic agent that is extensively applied as scaffolds in engineering and as drug carriers in the medical field. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of PSO for bone healing enhancement. Twenty adult male New Zealand rabbits, weighing an average of 1.5–2 kg, were used in this study. Three intrabony holes were created in the tibiae of each animal, which were filled with a gelatin sponge (GS group) and combined gelatin sponge and PSO (GS/PSO group). Holes without material application were designated as the control group (C group). The animals were sacrificed at the healing duration (2–4 weeks) to prepare bone specimens for histological and histomorphometric analyses. Results. Histological findings indicated that the bone defects in the GS/PSO group showed more bone formation, mineralization, and maturation compared with the C and GS groups. Multiple group differences for bone cells showed a highly significant difference among all groups in the 2- and 4-week healing periods except for the C/GS and GS/GS/PSO groups at 4-weeks duration. Furthermore, highly significant results were obtained between both durations regarding the trabecular area, trabecular number, and bone marrow area. Conclusion. The study revealed that the combined application of GS and PSO was more effective in enhancing bone regeneration and accelerating bone healing compared with the other groups.
Studies were conducted to screen eight sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) genotypes for their allelopathic potential against weeds and wheat crop, which customarily follows sunflower in Iraq. All sunflower genotypes significantly inhibited the total number and biomass of companion weeds and the magnitude of inhibition was genotype dependent. Among the eight genotypes tested, Sin-Altheeb and Coupon were the most weed-suppressing cultivars, and Euroflor and Shumoos were the least. A subsequent field experiment indicated that sunflower residues incorporated into the field soil significantly inhibited the total number and biomass of weeds growing in the wheat field. Sunflower genotypes Sin-Altheeb and Coupon appeared to inhibit total weed number
... Show MoreCar drivers hear many kinds of noise inside their vehicles' cabins, and the most annoying ones are the noise generated by tires, engines, and outside winds. Noise affects the comfort of the passengers inside the cabin, and it’s sad to say that modern cars are noisier in many kinds of noise signals due to using a lot of plastic materials in new budget cars. For expensive and luxury cars, the problem is solved by using better sound insulation materials, but for the budget ones, the approach used here is effective. It is called Active Noise Cancellation and can be done using analog or digital electronics. An operational amplifier and filters are used for the analog one, and in the digital one, signal processor chips are used. In engineeri
... Show MoreBackground: There is a clear debate about the role of bad oral habits (thumb-sucking and biting nails) and on oral health and the state of the dental caries, but there is no doubt that continuing these bad habits until advanced ages will lead to deep and difficult problems to solve. Objective: The purpose of study was to evaluate the effect of bad habits, include finger sucking and nail biting on dental caries among children aged from 6 to 10 years old. Subjects and methods: In Al-Hilla city, Iraq, a comparative study was conducted in which (200) primary school students aged between 6 to10 years old were involved. A questionnaire filled out by their parents was used to gather information related to the bad oral habit, and then all the stude
... Show MoreThe present work investigates the effect of magneto – hydrodynamic (MHD) laminar natural convection flow on a vertical cylinder in presence of heat generation and radiation. The governing equations which used are Continuity, Momentum and Energy equations. These equations are transformed to dimensionless equations using Vorticity-Stream Function method and the resulting nonlinear system
of partial differential equations are then solved numerically using finite difference approximation. A thermal boundary condition of a constant wall temperature is considered. A computer program (Fortran 90) was built to calculate the rate of heat transfer in terms of local Nusselt number, total mean Nusselt number, velocity distribution as well as te
Pharmaceuticals have been widely remaining contaminants in wastewater, and diclofenac is the most common pharmaceutical pollutant. Therefore, the removal of diclofenac from aqueous solutions using activated carbon produced by pyrocarbonic acid and microwaves was investigated in this research. Apricot seed powder and pyrophosphoric acid (45 wt%) were selected as raw material and activator respectively, and microwave irradiation technique was used to prepare the activated carbon. The raw material was impregnated in pyrophosphoric acid at 80◦C with an impregnation ratio of 1: 3 (apricot seeds to phosphoric acid), the impregnation time was 4 h, whereas the power of the microwave was 700 watts with a radiation time of 20 min. A series o
... Show MoreThe current study included the isolation, purification and cultivation of blue-green alga Oscillatoria pseudogeminata G.Schmidle from soil using the BG-11liquid culture medium for 60 days of cultivation. The growth constant (k) and generation time (G) were measured which (K=0.144) and (G=2.09 days).
Microcystins were purified and determined qualitatively and quantitatively from this alga by using the technique of enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (Elisa Kits). The alga showed the ability to produce microcystins in concentration reached 1.47 µg/L for each 50 mg DW. Tomato plants (Lycopersicon esculentum) aged two months were irrigated with three concentrations of purified microcystins 0.5 , 3.0 and 6.0
... Show MoreIn Iraq, the domestic goat
The modified Hummers method was applied to prepare graphene oxide (GO) from the graphite powder. Tin oxide nanoparticles with different loading (10-20 wt.%) supported on reduced graphene oxide were synthesized to evaluate the oxidative desulfurization efficiency. The catalyst was synthesized by the incipient wetness impregnation (IWI) technique. Different analysis methods like FT-IR, XRD, FESEM, AFM, and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) were utilized to characterize graphene oxide and catalysts. The XRD analysis showed that the average crystal size of graphene oxide was 6.05 nm. In addition, the FESEM results showed high metal oxide dispersions on the rGO. The EDX analysis shows the weight ratio of Sn is close to its theoretical weight.
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